Analysis Do Wemby's iffy health prospects make "going all in" with the roster building an option?

[Sugus]

By now, it is very clear that Wemby will not enjoy the durabilty of workhorses like Jokic or Timmy's near-two decade of evolving valuability and excellence.. So doesn't that make it imperative for the Spurs to shift gears to a more aggressive roster-upgrade approach?

I don't think that's clear at all: Curry's ankles say hello.... Injuries are unpredictable, and not a linear factor in most cases. Wemby hasn't yet had any degenerative nor strongly reoccurring injury, I don't think this is fair to say at all (as if Duncan never missed games in his days...).

In any case, the Spurs made some aggressive moves already - Fox's $60M certainly aren't a quiet move.

But also -- I'll gladly take 70 games of Prime Wemby over 82 games of Prime Jokic - I think he'll be that good (and DPOY defense is just too valuable to discard when you can just have some yearly load management plan).

 

[Sugus]

By the way, I was curious and checked;

Duncan's Played RS Games through his first 3 NBA seasons: 82, 50, 74.

Wemby's Played RS Games through his first 3 NBA seasons: 71, 46, 12* [so far - has missed only 2 games as of today].

It's really not the significant difference this post makes it out to be, especially considering the eras both players played in. And yes, obviously Timmy played more games because of the Playoffs, but Wemby only missed them for health reasons last year, would've played them as a rookie if the Spurs qualified.

BTW, Jokic played 80, 73, 73 RS games his first three seasons, he's definitely the most durable of the three (and also plays by far the least defense, unsurprisingly).

 

[spurraider21]

not to mention coaches are more cautious these days. wemby only missed 11 games as a rookie but it was over a low grade ankle sprain and he probably didnt need to miss as many games as he did, and the b2b restriction after he came back was also probably not something coaches would have done 25 years ago

the games missed last year were over a blood clot. thats not a basketball injury which reflects some inherent injury proneness or durability issue

 

[dn0774]

By the way, I was curious and checked;

Duncan's Played RS Games through his first 3 NBA seasons: 82, 50, 74.

Wemby's Played RS Games through his first 3 NBA seasons: 71, 46, 12* [so far - has missed only 2 games as of today].

It's really not the significant difference this post makes it out to be, especially considering the eras both players played in. And yes, obviously Timmy played more games because of the Playoffs, but Wemby only missed them for health reasons last year, would've played them as a rookie if the Spurs qualified.

BTW, Jokic played 80, 73, 73 RS games his first three seasons, he's definitely the most durable of the three (and also plays by far the least defense, unsurprisingly).

Some context btw, Duncan's 2nd season was lockout shortened...just a 50 game season.

 

[DAF86]

By now, nothing is clear; so, no to the entire premise of this thread.

 

[Sugus]

Some context btw, Duncan's 2nd season was lockout shortened...just a 50 game season.

Lol, my bad, I didn't check total games played!

Nevermind then, Wemby's clearly an injury-prone bust, trade him while his value's still high tbh

 

[Exstatic]

Chet missed like his first entire season and then a huge part of last year. Those big skinny dudes are fragile. Still, keep working to keep him healthy.

Wemby has still played more games entering his 3rd season than Chet has entering his 4th. That will change soon, with Wemby on the shelf, but for now, it stands.

 

[dn0774]

Lol, my bad, I didn't check total games played!

Nevermind then, Wemby's clearly an injury-prone bust, trade him while his value's still high tbh

Agree'd lol

I remember like 40 years ago the Bulls drafted some kid named Mike Jordan out of UNC. Poor guy broke his foot at the start of his 2nd season and was clearly going to have an injury riddled career. I stopped following basketball for a couple decades after that, not sure how that kid turned out but it must've been rough.

 

[Sugus]

Wemby has still played more games entering his 3rd season than Chet has entering his 4th. That will change soon, with Wemby on the shelf, but for now, it stands.

Much better comparison actually, given they're both playing in the same era!

 

[scott]

Not concerned about Wemby being injury prone, though I do think we might have to starting coming to grips with the idea that he may have be load managed to 70-75 regular season games/year.

 

[poopbox]

Even disregarding Wembanyama's unique body type and skillset, now more than ever, it's a young man's game.

Between the pace and space, injuries and transactions, if you have an MVP or even All-NBA caliber player, no matter their age, it behooves you to attempt to expedite your championship contention window.

The question is, what does that look like in this case? Vassell and pick(s) probably gets them Murphy or a similar caliber player at best. Would that really vault them into full fledged contender status?

I agree. I'll take it a step further and say I think it's extremely difficult to build a championship team around Victor because he is so unlike any other player to ever play there is no blueprint to follow. There is no former championship team who had a player like Victor where you can go and say ok that is what we need to emulate.

Like what kind of big should we play with Victor? Should we get a Lauri type and just not care much about any defense? Should we get a Gobert type and let him defend the rim and then let Victor terrorize players freethrow line out?

Do we need more offense focused guards who can score? Do we need more facilitator guards who can focus on getting him the ball? Is it even optimal to have Victor as a featured offensive player should we have him take a step back from that and focus more on defense cause he is good enough on that end to pretty much single handedly wreck 90% of the teams in the nba. Only a smart veteran team like the warriors or a team with just top end basketball talent like okc and denver ever get consistent buckets when he is locked in on defense and it's not a coincidence that those teams literally have two players who finish top 5 in mvp voting.

I have no clue how we should optimally build this team, other than Sochan doesn't need to be on it.

 

[poopbox]

Not concerned about Wemby being injury prone, though I do think we might have to starting coming to grips with the idea that he may have be load managed to 70-75 regular season games/year.

Easily rectified by getting a real 3rd center tbh.

 

[jeebus]

Great fucking thread. Absolutely reeks of spurstalk quality. We got Wemby, who was injured because Podz swept the leg mortal kombat style and took him out. We got a freak blood clot thing that apparently was entirely his fault because he's so injury prone. Then you got random freak accidents like stepping on a ball boy's leg.

Jesus lmao

 

[O_V]

Spoiled as shit Spurfan is back. Not enough to have a backup all-star who needs some reps. Gotta try for yet another lottery pick when the superstar gets kicked in the leg.

 

[O_V]

By the way, I was curious and checked;

Duncan's Played RS Games through his first 3 NBA seasons: 82, 50, 74.

Wemby's Played RS Games through his first 3 NBA seasons: 71, 46, 12* [so far - has missed only 2 games as of today].

It's really not the significant difference this post makes it out to be, especially considering the eras both players played in. And yes, obviously Timmy played more games because of the Playoffs, but Wemby only missed them for health reasons last year, would've played them as a rookie if the Spurs qualified.

BTW, Jokic played 80, 73, 73 RS games his first three seasons, he's definitely the most durable of the three (and also plays by far the least defense, unsurprisingly).

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